MR. SPRAGUE'S 
SABBATH SCHOOL 

ADDRESS. 



m 



AN 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED 



IN THE SOUTH DUTCH CHURCH, 
ALBANY, 
OCTOBER 6, 1829, 



ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE COUNTY SABBATH 
SCHOOL UNION. 



BY WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, 

Pastor of the 2d Presbyterian Congregation in Albany. 



ALBANY : 

FEINTED AT THE CHRISTIAN REGISTER OFFICE, 

* /j^**** 

1829, 



X 



\\\ 



ADDRESS 

To the Superintendents and Teachers of the 
Albany County Sabbath School Union. 

It is always a grateful employment to the chris- 
tian, and especially to the christian minister, to cheer 
on the benevolent labors, of such as are disposed to 
be fellow-workers with him unto the kingdom of God. 
When, especially, he is permitted to meet those who 
are actively engaged in promoting the best interests 
of the rising generation, thus purifying the fountains 
of society, and guarding the hopes of the church, ha 
can scarcely fail to greet them with intense interest. 
Though he never saw them before, yet, finding them 
on this hallowed ground, he can take them by the 
hand as brothers and sisters, not only extending to 
them his counsel and encouragement, but cordially 
welcoming them to partake of his joy. 

I rejoice that these remarks admit of being applied 
to the occasion upon which we are assembled this af- 
ternoon. Though most of you whom I address as 
Superintendents and instructors of the Sabbath school 
are strangers to me, I rejoice that it is my privilege 
to meet you as fellow-helpers t# the truth;— as labo- 
ring, though not in exactly the same way, yet for 
substantially the same end, with every faithful min- 
ister of Christ. And I shall have gained my pur- 
pose in the few remarks which I am to make, if I 
should be so happy as to impress you more deeply 
with a sense of duty, or spread before you any thing 
in the way of encouragement, or even stir up your 
minds by putting you in remembrance. 

In presenting before you a brief outline of duty, 
permit me to say, 



4 



1. That you should endeavor to gain a deep impres- 
sion of the importance of the work in which you are 
engaged. 

In every enterprise in which men engage, it is ne- 
cessary that they should have just views of its impor- 
tance, in order to ensure a reasonable prospect of 
success: for if the object aimed at be really one of 
deep interest, and yet be regarded as of compa- 
ratively trifling interest, nothing is more certain than 
that the effort to obtain it, will be disproportioned to 
its importance, and will, therefore, probably, be to 
little or no purpose. If, for instance, you engage in 
the business of Sabbath school instruction, chiefly as 
a matter of amusement, or merely from an instinctive 
fondness for mingling with children, or from any con- 
sideration which does not involve a sense of the real 
importance of the object, it were in vain to expect 
that you should discharge, in the best manner, the du- 
ties #f your station. You will never labor with that 
diligence, perseverance, fidelity, and humble depen- 
dence on God, which ought to characterize the Sab- 
bath school teacher, unless you look at the object in 
its high and momentous bearings, not only upon the 
life that now is, but upon that which is to come. 

Let me counsel you, then, my friends, to bear in 
mind that the institution with which you are connec- 
ted, has for its grand object, the immortal interests of 
the young; — not merely their happiness and useful- 
ness in the present life, but their future and everlas- 
ting salvation. And this object it is adapted to secure 
on a larger scale than any other institution which 
has ever blessed the world. But whether the im- 
mense benefits which it proffers are to be realized. de- 
pends almost entirely under God, upon those by 
whom it is conducted. By neglect of duty on their 



5 



part, its benign influence may be, in a great degree ; 
or even completely, neutralized ; and it is liable to 
such abuses, that, instead of being a fountain of life 
and salvation, it may diffuse an influence which shall 
wither every plant of righteousness, and be felt, wher- 
ever it operates, as the blast of moral death. Rea- 
lize then, I entreat you, that you are wielding an en- 
gine of immense moral power ; that you have not on- 
ly a price put into your hands for gaining wisdom, but 
means put into your hands for imparting it, which 
involve tremendous responsibility. With such im- 
pressions of the importance of the Sabbath school, 
you cannot fail to address yourselves to your work 
with alacrity and zeal ; and instead of regarding it as 
an employment for an idle hour, it will weigh upon 
you, as one of the most momentous objects, whatev- 
er the others may be, of your whole life. 

2. After having gained a deep impression of the 
general importance of the work in which you are en- 
gaged, I would say, in the next place, spare no pains 
to qualify your selves for it, in the best possible manner. 

In order to ensure success in any department of in- 
struction, it is essential that the person acting as a tea- 
cher should have a familiar acquaintance with the sci- 
ence in which he instructs; that he should have far more 
knowledge of it, than he actually communicates: other- 
wise, his instructions will be likely to discover, if not 
too much of "the letter/' yet too little of^the spirit ?? 
of his subject; and he will be liable to frequent embar- 
rassment from inquiries which the curiosity or the in- 
genuity of his pupils may suggest. Be it your object, 
then, my friends, not only to gain a general acquain- 
tance with God's word, but to gain a thorough know- 
ledge of every lesson in which you attempt to instruct. 
Study each lesson with a sincere desire, and with ear- 



nest efforts, to ascertain the genuine mind of the 
Spirit ; and if difficulties suggest themselves, avail 
yourselves of all the helps within your reach, espe- 
cially of fervent prayer to the author of all spiritual 
illumination, for a solution of them. You will find 
much advantage from the use of a judicious commen- 
tary ; though you should recollect that this is to be 
used, not as a substitute for your own reflection, but 
as a help to it. You should endeavor to understand 
not only the meaning of each particular chapter or 
verse, as insulated, towards which your attention 
may be directed, but you should also understand it in 
its connexion, and comprehend the general scope and 
design of the discourse to which it belongs.— 
In short, you should not rest satisfied, so long as you 
are ignorant of any thing which it is in your power to 
know, in respect to the portion of Scripture ©n which 
you are employed. In this way, to say nothing of 
the immense personal advantage you will derive from 
having your mind richly stored with divine truth, you 
will be thoroughly furnished for your arduous work ; 
will be prepared to feed the lambs entrusted to you 
with knowledge and understanding; and will have the 
best reason to hope that your benevolent labors will 
be crowned with the blessing of God. If, on the o- 
ther hand, you neglect the proper preparation for 
this exercise, and occupy the place of teachers, when 
you have need to be^ taught what are the first princi- 
ples of the oracles of God. rely on it, there is little 
hope that the seed which^ow sow will ever germinate ; 
or that your labors, however well intended, will 
accomplish, in any considerable degree, the great and 
godlike design of the institution. 

- 3. Having made the best preparation in your power 
for meeting your class, let me counsel you, in the 



third place, to make it your grand object in imparting 
instruction, to cause your pupils to understand and to 
feel the truths which you communicate. 

An error against which you ought to be especially 
on your guard, is that of suffering those whom you 
instruct to pass with having learned their lessons 
merely by rote; — with having committed to memory 
mere words, without any knowledge of the sense which 
they convey. That the exercise of the memory is 
important, admits of no question ; but the design of 
Sabbath school instruction, so far as the intellect is 
concerned, can only be very partially gained, unless, 
along with the culture of the memory, there be a cor- 
responding attention paid to eliciting and strengthen 
ning the faculty of reflection. The great truths of 
Revelation which constitute the subj ect of instruction 
in the Sabbath school, are fitted, above any thing 
else, to furnish aliment to the mind, in its earliest 
as well as its most mature operations; and there is 
not a faculty of the soul, which, by being brought in 
proper contact with these truths, will not be quicken^ 
ed in its exercise, and in its developement. Endea- 
Tor then to impress it upon the minds of your pupils, 
that the words which they commit to memory are of 
little importance apart from the thoughts they are 
designed to convey ; and that they ought to regard 
little as done to purpose, until they are able to state 
the truths contained in each lesson in their own lan- 
guage. I know it has been too often taken for gran= 
ted that the faculty of reflection, is, in its developed 
ment, far behind the faculty of memory; and upon 
this principle, systems of education have been built, 
which have turned our children into parrots, instead 
of making them intelligent learners. But I rejoice 
that these false notions are, in a great degree, explo- 



5 



ded ; and that the most popular systems of education 
at the present day, proceed upon the principle that a 
child is capable of reflecting, of comparing, of reas- 
oning, as well as of remembering, Be assured you 
cannot lose sight of this principle, without blasting 
your own h©pes of success in this field of labor. 

That you may secure the important end of which I 
have here spoken — that of making your pupils under- 
stand the truths which you inculcate — let me suggest 
two directions. 

The first is, that your instructions should be com- 
municated with the utmost plainness and simplicity. 
It is not easy for one who has been little accustomed 
to familiar intercourse with children, to make suita- 
ble allowance, in imparting instruction, for the limi- 
ted views and the feeble grasp of a child's understan- 
ding; and hence, no doubt, much otherwiso good in- 
struction, both in the family and the Sabbath school, 
is to a great extent, or altogether, lost. If you would 
speak to the understanding of a child, it is absolutely 
assential that you should speak in some measure as a 
child ; else all that you say will be nothing more than 
a dead letter. Remember then, while you occupy the 
place of a Sabbath school teacher, that though there 
may be around you many a germ of noble intellect, 
which is destined to an indefinite and glorious ex- 
pansion, yet the capacities with which you have t© 
do, are only the capacities of children. Let your il- 
lustrations of truth all be accommodated, so far as pos- 
sible, to their comprehension ; and encourage them 
to be inquisitive on any points which they do not fully 
understand. Whatever degree of simplicity may cha- 
racterize your instructions, no danger can result frem 
it ; but you may as well remain silent as to talk to 
them in a way which they cannot comprehend, 



9 



I The other direction to which I referred, is, that 
you should pay due respect to the order of divine truth; 
in other words, that you should let every truth occu- 
py in your instructions, its proper place. There aro 
in religion, as in every other science, first principles, 
or fundamental truths, a knowledge of which is essen- 
tial as the basis of all subsequent improvement. Now 
what I intend is, that these leading truths should 
first be proposed to the mind of a child; and that these 
should be followed by others in the order of nature, 
as the mind may be able to receive and digest them. 
The same truth when presented in its right connex- 
ion, may be easily understood, which, when exhibited 
out of that connexion, would be perfectly unintelli- 
gible. Begin then with that which is most simple ; 
and as you advance, be careful to connect one thing 
with another; that thus the truths of God's word, as 
they are received into the mind, instead of remaining 
in an incoherent and chaotic state, may be arranged 
into a well proportioned and beautiful system. In 
communicating the truth in this way, you not only 
have the advantage of presenting it in its native at- 
tractions, but you greatly assist the memory also, by 
bringing into exercise with the best effect the princi- 
ple of association ; for the connexion between diffe- 
rent parts of the great system of truth is so obvious, 
lhat the contemplation of one truth very naturally 
suggests another. It is to the observance of this rule 
especially that it is owing, that the attainments of some 
children in the knowledge of God's word, have been 
truly astonishing : and on the other hand, to the neg- 
lect of this rule 'is to be referred, in a great degree, 
the fact that many other children, of equal capacities, 
and in every other respect, of equal advantages, have 
made but a tardy and doubtful progress. 



10 



i am aware that there may seem to be a difficulty 
m the way of realizing this desirable end, from the 
fact that the child has his set lessons, which are to 
bo a guide to the teacher in the recitation. But, if I 
mistake not. the difficulty is rather apparent than real. 
The set questions, it is taken for granted, are gene- 
rally within the child's comprehension, and may all 
very properly be asked by the teacher, and answered 
by the pupil ; but the teacher should recollect that 
the simple asking of these questions, constitutes but 
a small part of his duty, and that he is to connect with 
them in every case a greater or less amount of reli- 
gious instruction. Here then is the opportunity af- 
forded him for observing that order of divine truth of 
which I have spoken. Let him pass lightly over sub- 
j eels relating to the deep things of God, which may 
seem to be connected with the lesson, and dwell 
chiefly upon those truths which, while they are more 
simple, are yet more fundamental in the christian 
system. And thus he may gradually conduct his pu- 
pils to an intelligent contemplation of all the doctrines 
of our holy religion. 

But you have another object to gain in Sabbath 
school instruction, beside making your pupils theo- 
logians: You should labor not only that they may 
understand the truth, but feel its power. The former 
may exist without the latter; but if it does thus ex- 
ist, it will aggravate, rather than prevent their final 
condemnation ; for 'he that knoweth his Master's 
will and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many 
stripes.' 

Endeavor, then, with a view to the attainment of 
this high end, to render your instruction, in the high- 
est degree, practical Let it be an object never to 
he lost sight of, that your pupils should realize that 



11 

the truths with which they are made acquainted, are 
something more than materials for mere speculation ; 
that they themselves have a deep personal interest in 
them ; and that in these truths is bound up their des- 
tiny for eternity. Endeavor to impress them with a 
deep sense of the character, the law, and the gov* 
ernment of God, and of the relations w T hich they sus- 
tain to him; of their own character as ruined and 
guilty sinners ; of the provision for their recovery 
and salvation in the atonement of Christ ; of the ne- 
cessity of repentance, and faith, and holiness ; and 
of the everlasting retributions of the righteous and 
the wicked in a future world. These and various o- 
ther subjects connected with them, are, from time to 
time, to be brought home, not only to their under- 
standings as matter for reflection, but to their hearts 
and consciences as matter of deep and solemn fee- 
ling ; and the effect of this course of instruction is to 
be carefully watched, and every serious impression is 
to be followed up with counsels and exhortations fit- 
ted to render it deep and abiding. Rely on it, my 
friends, there is not a lesson which comes before 
you, which does not admit of being applied in this 
practical way ; and whenever you neglect to make 
such an application, however faithful you may be in 
other respects, believe me, you only half discharge 
your duty. 

4. But your duty towards your pupils does not ter- 
minate in the school : I observe, fourthly, that you 
are to bear them on your hearts in the closet , and you 
are to follow them to th< family, and are to exercise, 
so far as circumstances may require or warrant, a ge- 
neral guardianship over their mot al and spiritual in- 
terests. 

You believe in the efficacy of prayer, and you be- 



12 



lieve that we are bound to acknowledge God in all 
our ways. Is it not then pre-eminently your duty, 
entrusted as you are, in a sense, with the eternal in- 
terests of these children, engaged as you are in gi- 
ving a direction to the immortal mind, which it may 
not improbably retain during its whole existence- 
is it not pre-eminently your duty, I ask, to seek a 
divine blessing on all your exertions to imbue them 
with knowledge and piety ; and is it not equally your 
duty to commend them daily to the enlightening, re- 
newing, life-giving influences of God's Holy Spirit? 
Rely on it, if your closets do not testify to your sense 
of dependence on divine aid in the discharge of your 
duty, and to your earnest supplications for the salva- 
tion of the dear children committed to your care, you 
are not laboring as you ought to labor ; and you have 
little reason to expect that your efforts, in this cause, 
will be owned of Him, who has the hearts of all in 
his hand. 

But your duty extends beyond the closet to the fa- 
mily. You are to go, as opportunity may offer, as an 
affectionate friend and visitor, to the houses in which 
your pupils reside ; to ascertain, so far as you can, 
their general deportment, that you may be the better 
prepared to adapt your counsels and instructions. — 
Such visits will serve, on the one hand, to increase 
the interest which you feel in your pupils, and on 
the other, to draw their affections more strongly to- 
wards you ; thus giving you a more ready access both 
to their understandings and their hearts. And more 
than this — these visits may sometimes be rendered 
eminently subservient to the spiritual interests of the 
parents and other members of the family; may be 
the means of dissipating clouds of ignorance, or brea- 
king up habits of vice, or for aught you can tell, of 



13 



saving souls from death and hiding a multitude oi 
sins. So. in some instances, it actually has been; 
and what teacher that remembers it, can fail to re- 
gard this as an important part of his duty ? 

5. Once more : I have spoken, under the prece- 
ding article, of some duties which devolve upon you 
as teachers, which seem to take for granted that you 
have yourselves been taught of the Spirit ; but there 
may be those among you^ perhaps, who, while you 
are engaged in this noble enterprise, are yet conscious 
that you have never felt the saving power of the truths 
i chick you are endeavoring to inculcate. And what 
shall be done in your case ? Shall you relinquish 
this high and sacred employment, and fold your arms, 
and resign yourselves to a state of inaction, congra- 
tulating yourselves that you have escaped the incon- 
sistency of inculcating truths, whose influence you 
do not profess to feel ? By no means. Rather ma- 
nifest your regard for consistency, by yielding your 
hearts to the influence of these truths, and becoming 
new creatures in Christ Jesus. Though you are wi- 
thout true piety, God may indeed give effect to your 
instructions, and make you instrumental even in the 
salvation of your pupils : but the event in respect to 
yourselves will be, that if you remain in this condi- 
tion, it were better for you never to have been born. 
We rejoice that you are disposed to enlist in this be- 
nevolent work; and the best wish we can form for 
you is, that this blessed gospel whose truths you are 
engaged in inculcating, may speedily prove to be the 
power of God in your own salvation. 

Let me say one word in this connexion in respect 
to the influence which this employment ought to have 
;ipon those of you, who are professedly the disciples of 
Christ. It should be improved by you as an impor- 



14 



iant means of growth in grace. And if you are faith- 
ful in the discharge of your duty, it cannot otherwise 
be, than that your sanctiflcation should thereby be 
rapidly advanced. Your employment brings you in 
constant contact with the truths of God's word. See 
to it that you study them with a humble, teachable, 
self-apph ing spirit. See to it that your duty to \ our 
pupils, whether in the school or out of it, be perfor- 
med in reliance on God's grace, and from a regard to 
his glory. In this way, while you water others, you 
will yourselves also be watered. The same course 
of action by which you are promoting the immortal 
interests of your fellow creatures, will be instrumen- 
tal of refining and exalting your own christian graces 
and of adding lustre to your crown of glory. 

I have already saii enough, my friends, to show, 
what I doubt not your own experience has long since 
taught you, that the faithful discharge of your whole 
duty as Sabbath school Teachers, is no light matter ; 
that the station which you hold is one involving deep 
responsibility, and demanding earnest and perseve 
ring efforts : let me now, before closing my remarks, 
suggest a few considerations to encourage you in this 
arduous work, 

1. You are laboring for the promotion of the best 
interests of your pupils. How much the happiness 
of any individual in the present life, depends upon 
his being intelligent and virtuous, I need not stop to 
show: nor will any one of you, or of this audience, 
doubt, that the characters which we here form, must 
decide our destiny for eternity. Now, it were too 
much to say that every child that comes into the 
Sabbath school, is sure to become wise and good ; 
but it is not too much to say that every such child is 
brought within the atmospher© of intelligence and 



15 



piety; — within the influence of counsels and instruc 
tions. which, if rightly improved, will render him res- 
pectable, useful and happy ; — an influence which may 
reach onward beyond the world, to a s^ate of intel- 
lectual arid moral perfection which it has not entered 
the mind of man to conceive. In connexion with 
this, let it be remembered that many of these chil- 
dren have their lot cast in families which are nurse- 
ries of ignorance and vice ; and that the same hand 
which brings them into the Sabbath school, rescues 
them from the most deplorable moral degradation. — 
And suppose one of these children, born in the dark 
haunts of ignorance or pollution, to be found out by 
some angel of mercy, and to be brought within the 
influence of Sabbath school instruction; — be it that 
it is one of these very children, before us, and that 
one. of you is the very individual, who performed the 
act ; — and suppose that this child listening to your 
pious instructions should early become imbued with 
the spirit of Christ , — suppose he should pass through 
the world, scattering blessings around him, and living: 
in the confidence and affection of his fellow crea- 
tures ; — suppose he should die in the triumph and 
transports of faith, and should go to join the general 
assembly and church of the first born, and should be- 
come a king and a priest unto God, and should ad- 
vance onward through eternity, with the ever-bright- 
ening powers and the ever-increasing joys of a ser- 
aph: — And suppose, at some remote period of his ex- 
istence, while the crown of life was upon his head, 
and the harp of glory in his hand, and the praise of 
Jesus upon his lips i — suppose his eye should glance 
backward to the hole of the pit from which he was 
digged, to the hand that rescued him, and the lips 
that counselled him, and the school in which he was 



16 



cursed into an heir of glory; and can you describe, 
can you conceive, the emotions that mast be awaker^ 
ed by such a retrospect? And suppose as I have alrea- 
dy intimated, it should be the privilege of any one of 
you to have been that benefactor ; to behold that fac< 
which, under your own counsels and instructions, you 
once saw wet with tears of penitence, now beaming up- 
on you the joy and the gratitude of a glorified immortal, 
i ask you with what emotions you would think then of 
\ our labors in this Sabbath school? I ask you which of 
all the sacrifices which you have ever made or ever 
can make in this cause, would not seem to you as less 
than nothing ? Now then, I repeat, you do not know 
in any given case that all this will be realized; but 
that it may be you are assured, that it will be you 
rire permitted to hope. I know that you desire the 
happiness of your fellow creatures: Say then, in what 
field you can labor with the promise of a richer harvest. 

2. You are laboring for yonr country. Nothing is 
more common to us, than to be entertained with 
bright visions of our country's glory : And it is true, 
my friends, that the sun in his circuit through the 
heavens, does not shine upon so goodly a land as 
ours .; not one upon which the God of nature, and the 
God of providence, and the God of grace, has so rich- 
Iv bestowed his gifts. But who does not know that 
of all uncertain things, the destiny of nations is one 
of the most uncertain ; that in countries in which ci- 
vilization, and learning, and refinement once shed 
their brightest beams, there reigns now and has reign- 
ed for ages, a darkness that can be felt ? Who, es- 
oecialJy.does not know that governments formed up- 
on a similar model with our own, have generally had 
but a brief existence ; and svho that listens does not 
hear from the grave of republics, a voice both instruc- 



17 



ti've and monitory ; pleading the cause of intelligence 
and virtue, and bidding us beware of ignorance and 
vice ? Yes, my friends, there are indeed in this land 
the elements of national greatness. There is here 
the germ of an influence which it is not too much to 
say, may be destined to control the world : but be- 
lieve me, the whole truth is not told unless it be said 
that here also may be the elements of national ruin ; 
here may be the germ of another influence which is 
destined to convulse the world. In w hat way then 
are the destinies of our country to be guarded ; the 
permanence of her institutions to be secured ? Be- 
lieve me, in no other way than by the diffusion of 
knowledge and virtue ; and he who labors for this, is 
in the best sense of the word, a patriot. And I eon 
gratulate you, and bless the master, that this is the 
great object of your labors. You are contributing 
most directly and efficiently to the stability of our re- 
public ; and if she should ever be seen in the great- 
ness and majesty of age. rely on it, your efforts will 
be among the means, under God, which will have 
contributed to her preservation. If I might speak out 
my mind to many an inflated politician, who professes 
to be ready to offer himself on the altar of his coun- 
try's glory, I would counsel him to forsake his mid- 
night cabals, and come in and take part with you in 
the far more patriotic employment of a Sabbath school 
Teacher ; and I would venture to add my opinion 
that one affectionate counsel, or one christian pre- 
cept, spoken in a Sabbath school room to the ear of 
a little child, is more likely to subserve our country's 
interests, than many a vapouring speech, which is 
made in the hall of supreme legislation, and echoes 
from one end of the nation to the other. 

3. You are laboring for the church, That the 



18 



church shall ultimately fill the world, is as certain as 
Jehovah's existence ; for he who hath promised it is 
Almighty and unchangeable. But then this is to be 
accomplished by means : and now I ask what means 
seem better adapted to this end, than this which you 
are employing f But we are not left to form our 
conclusions on this subject from the nature of the 
case : no, blessed be God, we are permitted to appeal 
-to facts, with the confidence of eye witnesses, for e- 
vidence that it is from the Sabbath school ranks that 
our churches are principally to look for their enlarge- 
ment. We have all probability on our side in ho- 
ping, that many of these children whom you teach, 
will be taught also of the Lord; for how often has 
the infant tongue been loosed first in the Sabbath 
school to speak forth the Redeemer's praises; nay, 
how often has the Spirit of grace descended with 
power upon these nurseries for heaven, and caused 
that sceue to be acted over again, in which the chil- 
dren in the temple shouted their infant hosannas to 
the Son of David' And how many are there at this 
moment in the church, ornaments of the church, pil- 
lars of the church, — who, but for the Sabbath school, 
would not have cared whether there were a church or 
a Saviour. Who then can doubt that you are contri- 
buting directly to replenish and to increase the ranks 
of the people of God ? Nay, who, with his eyes o- 
pen, can doubt that, if the church is ever to look 
forth, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrrible 
as an army with banners, she is to gather much that 
is beautiful on the one hand, and terrible on the oth- 
er, from this institution whose anniversary we cele- 
brate! 

There is another consideration connected with this 
which must not be omitted : W 7 here is the church to 



19 



look for her ministers? I answer unhesitatingly, 
chiefly to the Sabbath school. The exigencies of 
ihe times require that the number of ministers should 
be greatly increased ; and here begins that provision 
which God in his providence has made for meeting 
those exigencies. There is many a laborer now in 
the vineyard ; there is many a pious youth in the 
course of preparation for the ministry, whose mind 
first received a religious direction in the Sabbath 
school : and no doubt of the great multitude who are 
hereafter to go abroad among the nations, publishing 
the glad tidings of salvation, far the larger part will 
have begun their preparation for this high enterprise 
under Sabbath school instruction. Truly, my friends, 
yours is a labor of love. In behalf of the church, the 
whole church, I bid you God-speed in your benevo- 
lent labors, while 1 exhort you not to be weary in 
well doing. 

4. You are laboring for posterity , One generation 
passeth away, and another generation cometh ; but- 
no generation passes till it has done much towards 
forming the character of that which is to succeed it. 
It is the ordinance of heaven that the virtues and the 
vices of men should be propagated from age to age ; 
that we should live in the habits, the actions, the 
very thoughts, of those who come after us, from one 
generation to another; thus protracting our existence 
here beyond the brief period of human life, and se- 
curing to us a kind of earthly immortality. I say this 
is the ordinance of heaven ; and it extends to every 
human being : no man is so obscure, none so insigni- 
ficant, but that it reaches him : his actions, his words, 
his thoughts, tell, in a greater or less degree, upon 
the destinies not only of those around him, but cf 
-hose who are to come after him; and he need not 



be disappointed, notwithstanding all his fancied in- 
significance, if, in the day of retribution, some who 
had come into existence after he was dead should 
rise up, with thanksgivings on their lips, to call him 
blessed, or with flames on their tongues, to greet him 
as their destroyer. 

If this be so, what think you, my friends, of the 
extent of that influence which your labors here 
are likely to exert ? You mistake it if you suppose 
that that influence terminates in blessing the indivi- 
duals who are the immediate objects of it : no, it rea- 
ches onward; and if you could look down the vista 
of a thousand years, that which now seems feeble 
and contracted, might appear strong as the mountain 
torrent, diffusive as the light of heaven. I can ima- 
gine that there may be in this very assemblage of 
children before me — a spectacle the most lovely and 
the most sublime — T can imagine that there may be 
some Wilberforce, whose spirit may kindle over the 
wrongs of suffering humanity, and burst forth with 
lightning-like energy, to electrify a whole nation into 
a sense of its duty, and ultimately to purify our land 
iconi one of its foulest abominations. I can imagine 
that there may be some Mrs. Hannah More, whose 
writings will do much to stamp a character upon the 
age in which she lives ; whose praises ten thousand 
female tongues will delight to repeat ; and whose 
name, to the end of time, will be associated with all 
that is noble in intellect, all that is sublime in pi- 
ety, and all that is gentle and benign in the best 
forms of female character. I can imagine that there 
may be some Edwards, who will teach men how to 
bring order out of confusion, and light out of darkness, 
p.nd to wield the very elements of the moral world. 
And if it should be so (and surely the supposition in- 



21 



volves nothing like a miracle) estimate, if you can, 
the amount of good which, in either case, will result 
in the process of ages, from the life of that individual. 
Will not the school in which that mind first received 
its right direction, ever be regarded as a fountain of 
life, whose waters were for the refreshment and hea- 
ling of the world ? And if, at the j udgment, it should 
be given you to choose whether to have been a tea- 
cher of that favored class, or to have worn the bright- 
est diadem on earth, would you not, think you, tram- 
ple the laurels of earthly distinction under your feet, 
and grasp at the nobler honor of having turned many 
to righteousness ? 

I might go on to say that your labors have a tenden- 
cy to promote the joy of angels : for what saith our 
Saviour? 'There is joy in heaven over one sinner 
that repenteth:' and again 'Take heed that ye des- 
pise not one of these little ones ; for I say unto you 
that in Heaven their angels do always behold the face 
of my Father which is in Heaven.' I might say too 
that you are laboring for God ; for the extension of 
his kingdom; for the promotion of his glory ; but I 
will not extend my remarks further, for I owe you an 
apology for having already extended them so far, I 
leave you, humbly imploring God 7 s blessing to direct, 
to animate, and t« crown your labors. I leave you, 
devoutly thanking God and you, in behalf of the pa- 
rents of these children, in behalf of the city in which 
we dwell, in behalf of our common country, in behalf 
of the wise and good everywhere, that you have en- 
listed in this hallowed enterprise. Hear the master 
saying unto thee from the heaven of heavens, 'Be 
thou faithful unto the death— faithful in all thy rela- 
tions—faithful as a disciple of Christ— and I will give 
thee a crown of life!' 



I 



